Change of plans again (why do we always do this) we went even further north to Luang Prabang and have decided then to go back to VV/VTE en route to Vietnam - there was no option other than to double back on ourselves so we spent 9 hours on a non-air-con bus (although they said it was air-con). We went through the area where all those tourists/locals were killed without incident, there were Army guys with rifles peppered throughout the route. We did, however nearly have an accident on one of the hundreds of blind corners our driver took on the wrong side of the road. At 40 miles an hour. With a 500m drop the other side. This near-accident seemed to slow him down (for the next couple of bends at least) but it had jarred his gears to a point that the clutch no longer seemed to be working. Now there isn't alot between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, certainly not a bus garage so when we glided to a halt I kind of thought we'd either have to hi-jack another bus (which were all packed - stuff on the roof, people standing etc...) or stay here for the night. After about 40 minutes of reading the headlines in my head...'Bus tour ends in disaster', 'Hmong rebels capture British tourists, ransome set at 50p' etc... the driver decided he'd go with the old addage 'If you can't find 'em, grind 'em' and thus he did. For 3 hours.

We eventually limped into LP one hour early - no I have no idea how he did it either...we trapsed around looking for a guesthouse but couldn't find one so opted for a hotel (!) which cost $35 a night - the most we'd paid so far - it was OK and we both got a cracking night's sleep. Needless to say we moved this morning and are now holed up in a fantastic little guesthouse near the quiet temple area.
We have spent some time getting our bearings today and are going to the caves and waterfall tomorrow before taking a day out around the Wats and museums the day after. The plan then is to go back to VV on Sunday where we will stay a few days. The trickiest thing at the moment is sorting the flight/bus/donkey to Vietnam. We have heard some horror stories about how the Laos/Viet bus trips are basically organised smuggling rackets so we have considered flying - only prob is that it is either via Lao Aviation - which doesn't publish it's safety record (!) - or Vietnam Airlines on a Fokker F-70....hmmmmm I quite fancy the drug-buses all of a sudden.

The latest plan is still to get up to China but we may come back via the Phillipines as a couple we met said they had heard of some great dive sites there (some fantastic WW II wrecks apparently) and we're both itching to get back in the water again.